Newspaper: Open records on Gibbons’ concealed-gun permit

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Carson City — Nevadans should be able to find out whether authorities suspended their governor’s permit to carry a concealed handgun, a newspaper’s lawyers will argue today.

And if state Supreme Court decides the newspaper is right, all concealed handgun permit records could be open to public scrutiny.

The Reno Gazette-Journal has been seeking public access to Gov. Jim Gibbons’ permit records for more than a year. The paper wanted to investigate after his April 2008 statement that he surrendered his handgun permit after belatedly realizing he had not completed the required training for his nine handguns — even though he had signed an application saying that he had.

The false information on the application appeared to be grounds for suspension or revocation of the permit.

Scott Glogovac, the newspaper’s attorney, said citizens have a right to know whether the governor has been disciplined.

Last year, after Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley, whose office handled the governor’s permit records, refused to divulge the information, the newspaper sued. Washoe County District Attorney Nathan Edwards argued that the records are confidential under Nevada law.

The newspaper contended that the law applies only to the application itself, but Washoe County District Judge Janet Berry ruled that information about the status of any handgun permit issued to the governor could not be released because the intent of the law was to protect the name of the permit holder, whether that person is the governor or not.

Glogovac argues that it’s difficult to tell from state law how far the Legislature wanted to extend confidentiality of concealed weapons records. The law, for example, doesn’t address whether the permit itself or records that relate to the revocation or suspension of the permit are confidential, he said.

Glogovac alleges that the Washoe judge “plainly disregarded the unequivocal mandate of Nevada’s Public Records Act that any claim of confidentiality as to public records be narrowly construed.”

Barry Smith, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, said Monday that for him “the issue here has little to do with guns and is all about government accountability. This is an example of the government wanting to regulate something, expecting information from its residents and placing requirements and restrictions on them, but then not sharing that information with the public. There’s no outside oversight to check to see if it’s being handled properly.”

Washoe authorities say the state needs to protect the permit-holder. If the permit information were public, “any would-be hacker could walk in off the street and discover whether their potential victim has a permit.”

“In cases of high-profile figures, the already compelling need for the government to keep this information confidential is even more acute,” Edwards said.

They “are commonly the target of dangerous and deranged individuals,” he added.

So is that why the governor needs a permit to carry a gun?

Daniel Burns, the governor’s spokesman, said Gibbons does have a concealed-weapons permit, but “we have no interest in discussing whether he carries a concealed weapon or not.

“We just as soon would like to keep his personal life personal,” Burns said.

Sun reporter Jeff German contributed to this story.